Lusotitan atalaiensis hi-fi skeletal

Lusotitan atalaiensis

Etymology: Lusitanian (Portuguese) lizard from Atalaia
Family: Brachiosauridae (intermediate position)
Time: Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian-Tithonian epochs, ~150 mya
Location: Lourinhã, Portugal

*Now HEAVILY revised and re-scaled based on Mannion, et. al. 2013*

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Lusotitan atalaiensis, the Portuguese brachiosaur, formerly classified as a species of Brachiosaurus.

Actually there is at least one other Portuguese brachiosaur known www.flickr.com/photos/62923316… www.flickr.com/photos/62923316…, but it's a good deal smaller and known from a complete arm, whereas Lusotitan is known from no complete body segments.

Lusotitan is a large brachiosaur, though this most recent revision shows it's not the supergiant once thought - at least not the sole individual known, which was not full grown. It's slightly smaller than the teenage Giraffatitan HMN SII.  Its tibiae are more robust and expanded at both ends than those of Giraffatitan. However, its tail is significantly larger, which may reflect a different defense strategy. Although the humeri are incomplete, their proximal portions indicate bones of huge size, even by typical brachiosaur proportions. As the biggest animal in the Lourinhã formation, Lusotitan would have truly been an imposing presence on the the floodplains of Late Jurassic Europe. Maximum size, as with Giraffatitan, is unknown, but may have been around 15-20% bigger than the type specimen.

This is the first ever detailed skeletal of Lusotitan compiled from data based on the actual fossil remains. Speculative portions are restored after Giraffatitan, with some modifications based on various European brachiosaur taxa (head, neck, dorsals, etc.). Some of these taxa are highly confused, such as the case of Ornithopsis eucamerotus/Eucamerotus foxi/Bothriospondylus magnus. Generally these European forms have dorsal neural spines more vertical than in Giraffatitan and more slender than in Brachiosaurus, so it may be inferred that Lusotitan had a similar morphology.

REFERENCES:

A.F. de Lapparent & G. Zbyszewski, 1957, "Les dinosauriens du Portugal", Mémoires des Services Géologiques du Portugal, nouvelle série 2: 1-63

Antunes, Miguel; Mateus, Octavio (2003). "Dinosaurs of Portugal". Comptes Rendus Palevol 2 (1): 77–95.

Mannion, P. D., Upchurch P., Barnes R. N., & Mateus O. (2013). "Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 1-109.